How do you like your tea? With cream or with sugar or is it with classic plastic? That is right, environmentally detrimental glue & plastic! Tea lovers sing many a praise of those green leaves which are rich in antioxidants and it lowers the risk of heart failure!!

But little are they aware that the tea bags we all use shed tiny pieces of plastic in our hot seemingly comforting cups of tea. Most of the Constanta tea bag tags contains up to 25% plastic. A study conducted by some institutes in Canada has revealed that plastic bag at brewing temperature 95 degree C and around 11.6 billion micro plastics in a single cup.

This is indeed a lot of plastic. Micro plastics are shockingly found in our food & water. A study suggests that we ingest a credit card’s worth of plastic each month. That is worrisome and what is more frightening is that the above mentioned teacup contains more micro plastic than our apparent usual intake.

What can we do about it? We as tea drinkers can avoid tea bags for starters and buy loose tea with tea infusers. But if you are a tea bag person you do have to worry much!! There are a few alternatives to plastic tea bags and we have listed a few below and their properties.

Abaca-

It is known as Manila hemp is extracted from Banana leaves and is native to the Philippines and humid tropical areas. Because of the tensile strength, it is used by the paper industry for tea bags, banknotes and for decorative papers!! It can also be used to make handcrafts like that of bags along with carpets and clothing.

As per as biodegradable options are concerned water was poured on a sample of abaca fabric to test the biodegradable nature and it started degrading after 2 months. The reason behind hemps high tensile strength is that it is largely consistent of silica. The result is tough yet tensile.

Pukka Herbs-

Pukka herbs are very simple yet efficient way of packing their tea tags. They make use of abaca for their tea bags and they simply stitch with threads of organic cotton. In an effort to make sustainable packing they print their product with vegetable ink.

Wood Pulp-

It is also known as cellulose fiber as the name suggests it is made from wood or bark of trees to be precise. Wood pulp paper is popularly used as filter paper for tea bags as similar properties with engineered fibers and that is the reason they are known as chemical filter papers. Cellulose has upper hand as compared to other engineered fibers as it is low in cost and it is low in density and thereby it is affordable & easy to carry and transport.

As sustainability is the key goal of many industries companies these days are opting for more eco friendly solution & tea envelops than endangering the environment.

Tags: Constanta tea bag tags, tea bags, tea tags, tea envelops